It's been long rumored that the Angels are interested in dealing for Rockies 3rd baseman Garrett Atkins. And once again, the rumors are flying. What do you guys think about this? Personally, I think it's a bad idea. He would be a massive power upgrade at third but he'd be a huge defensive downgrade at third. If we did acquire him, maybe instead of moving Figgins to left, we could keep him at 3rd and maybe experiment with Atkins in left, much like the Brewers did with Ryan Braun. That worked out well for them. But Atkins' numbers away from Coors are rather disturbing. In 2008 he batted .342/.380/.523 at Coors Field but just a dismal .233/.278/.383 on the road. The only encouraging sign is that 12 of his 21 home runs did come away from Coors. So the power is legit but the hitting isn't. I'm afraid that his line might resemble the road split of 2008 more so than the home split if he played in Anaheim for the Halos. Also on one last note, his walks have gone from 79 to 67 to 40 in 2006, 2007, and 2008 respectively. He had 602, 605, and 611 ABs respectively in those 3 years so the reduced walks is not a circumstance of fewer ABs.

So to sum it up, I don't think Atkins is the big bat to get us over the hump, whether we keep Tex or not.